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Best OST Contest 2
After a reasonably successful 2011 campaign, azuarc decided to try running Best OST Contest a second time. BOST2 was not nearly as successful as the previous year in that participation was down, however the actual progression of the bracket, particularly the loser's bracket, was much more entertaining, and ultimately there was a reasonably unanticipated winner. Winner's Bracket: http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=434774&tclass=Winner%27s%20Bracket Loser's Bracket: http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=434774&tclass=Loser%27s%20Bracket Spreadsheet with tourney info: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdFljOU9MMHNZNl9lRmRGM3VGc1N5bEE#gid=12 Pre-Tournament The nomination and support voting phase went much like the previous year's, except with fewer participants. On account of a smaller nomination pool, azuarc elected not to do a snubs tournament. However, azuarc threw a minor wrench in the nominations by admitting last year's snubs winner, Sora. Some argued that since the side bracket was called the "Just For Fun" bracket, it shouldn't count. azuarc also arranged the bracket by hand with guidance from the number of support votes rather than just going top to bottom, in hopes of avoiding all of the major contenders being on one side again. Winner's Bracket Bracket The WB opened with a bang when favorite Chrono Cross lost in round one to Epic Pinball. Another 1 seed, Umineko Chiru also lost in the opening round to eventual finalist Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. AC:AH's run was perhaps the biggest surprise of the bracket, although it wasn't until the game managed to defeat Umineko (normal) in round 5 that it really earned anyone's respect, forcing former VGMC winner Hope into a Tiebreaker and then narrowly winning in a battle of alternates. Regardless, it quickly became evident that the seeding meant extremely little, as there were entire swaths of the bracket where the "favorite" lost consistently, particularly in the part of the bracket AC:AH emerged from, where all but (2) Donkey Kong Country 2 lost in round 1, all the lower seeds represented won in round 2, and the winning match of that division was a 14 seed vs a 16 seed. The ultimate winner of the bracket, though garnering little attention due to a nomination that was very even in strength and by benefitting off some key early defeats, was (5) Shatter. Shatter won both its semifinal match and the finals convincingly in a bracket that featured a lot of one- and two-vote victories. Noteworthy matches: * Round 1: (16) Epic Pinball over (1) Chrono Cross, removing the biggest bracket thread in the opening match. * Round 1: (5) Metroid Prime over (12) Star Fox, winning in the biggest rout in the tournament, which is only really noteworthy since it's Metroid Prime, and because MP did the same thing last year. * Round 2: (3) Persona 3 over (11) Sora in double overtime. There had never been a double overtime before, and improvised rules were created to deal with it. Using the #6 tracks, Battle For Everyone's Souls beat Rendezvous by a single vote to prevent a fourth face-off. * Round 5: (16) Ace Combat: Assault Horizon over (4) Umineko in overtime. #5 song White Devil used a late surge to tie Hope in the final minutes, and consequently Dogfight won the second tiebreaker for AC:AH over Dread of the Grave. Loser's Bracket Bracket The loser's bracket began this year as soon as the WB concluded round 1. This slowed the progress of the WB, but helped ensure that the bracket didn't conclude with the WB champion, followed by a lot of low-end matches for the LB. The first few rounds of the LB didn't produce any shocking results, but a few of the early losers did hang on for a bit to make a deep run in the LB. However, beginning with round 5, there were some real heavyweights being thrown around, and also some games that got a very lucky break due to song pairing. For example, Okami caught Barkley:SUAJG just before the round it would have used johnathan taylor thomas. Super Robot Wars alpha 3 got revenge on VVVVVV for bouncing it from the WB in round 1. The epic showdown between Final Fantasies 8 and 13 lasted for three days due to tiebreaking and the wrong version of one song appearing, which was of particular concern since azuarc was out of town during that match and a ruling was needed immediately because the winner had to play the very next day. The final four of the LB were particularly interesting because of the potential match-ups. Okami vs Umineko gave us a clash between two former VGMC winners, while if FF8 had triumphed over AC:AH, we would have also had a rematch of the VGMC5 finals. However, Ace Combat dodged a bullet considering it's strongest song was it's #5, which was used in that round, when FF8's #6 would likely have crushed anything (else) in AC's line-up. In a closely-contested LB finals that made it evident (if it wasn't already,) the voters in this particular contest were favoring hard, heavy music when Shall Defend defeated The Sun Rises. As a footnote, one of the most interesting stories about the LB (and WB) was the success of nominations by used xp1337, who was responsible for so many nominations advancing deep into the bracket that he very nearly had one of his games in a match on consecutive days for over a week. None of his nominations made the LB final four, but quite a few came close. He would get his revenge later, however... Noteworthy matches: * Round 6: Final Fantasy VIII defeats Final Fantasy XIII in a multi-day affair, finally stopping the surprise upstart, amid controversy over song versions. * Round 8: Okami defeats Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, taking down VGMC winner Hope. Consequently, Hope represented both of Umineko's losses. Had Umineko won here, it would have almost assuredly taken the tournament. The Finals For the second straight year, the grand finals were a rematch of the winner's bracket finals. Shatter waited patiently for the LB champion to rise up, only to find it was Ace Combat: Assault Horizon again. It's worth noting that of the members of the final four that came out of the bracket, AC:AH was the only one Shatter was probably favored to beat. On the "odds" day, the matches were Kinetic Harvest v Keep Alive, Amethyst Caverns v Gotta Stay Fly, and The Neon Mines v White Devil. Although the match was open to a bit of controversy when azuarc gave a voter a slight time extension to vote, and then changed one of his own votes (which resulted in a temporary tie until the final vote came in,) Shatter narrowly won both matches that did not involve White Devil and prevented there from being a second day. However, there was one final challenger! It was agreed upon at the start of the tournament that BOST2 would conclude with an exhibition match between last year's winner and this year's. Thus, Shatter prepared for battle with Ar Tonelico II. The respective nominators of the two games, azuarc and xp1337, chose their best three tracks to square off. Shatter was hopelessly outclassed and was absolutely demolished in the first and third matches. It saved a tiny bit of face by winning the second match between Neon Mines and The Moon-Dwelling Demon by 1 vote, but the overal votals were 24-9. Clearly, Ar Tonelico II won. Rules Nomination Phase #During the days that nominating is open, users will be welcome to submit nominations. Please check the list of current nominations to not accidentally duplicate an existing nomination. (See voting section for info on repeating noms.) Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdFljOU9MMHNZNl9lRmRGM3VGc1N5bEE #When a nomination is given, the user must also provide six songs, in the order you want them played, plus one alternate. All songs must include YouTube links. See example below. #All songs must be original to *that* video game. Remixes are acceptable. Mere arrangements are not. Licensed material that is effectively original to the game will be accepted. The music must be findable from the game somehow, even if it’s not heard during a normal playthrough. #Game choices will be limited to one game, not a series. Expansions count as part of the base game. If a game is episodic, (Umineko, .hack,) the episodes will count as one game. "Not a game" games that are typically accepted on Board 8 like Homestuck and visual novels will be accepted. #Users are limited to one nomination per day. I don’t care if you interpret this as separated by midnight local time, or by your sleeping patterns. The rule will only be enforced if someone is clearly in violation. #You may not post a game ahead of time, reserve a game selection, or nominate multiple times in a day following an absence to make up for lost time. #THERE ARE NO RULES TO HOW YOU DETERMINE THE ORDER IN YOUR SETLIST. You might decide to put your strongest songs at the end for the tough competition your game would face there, or you might put them up front to help ensure the game makes it through the opening rounds of the tournament. #This rule is optional, consider it more of a request: Please don’t nominate games you nominated last year. Let’s help encourage variety, and also give others the chance to represent their favorites. #Nominators may change their setlist up until the point that games are chosen for the bracket. If you agree with a nomination, but not with the song selection, please discuss this with the nominator. In *extreme* situations, the tournament adjuticants may accept an alternate setlist, but this will be reserved primarily for cases of (intended or unintended) sabotage. #The following games are “retired” due to past success and may not be nominated: Ar Tonelico II - Melody of Metafalica Voting and Selection Phase #Beginning during the nominating period and extending for (several days) afterwards, users will be given the option to “support vote” (SV) the nominations. Games with the most SVs will be placed in the bracket, and possibly given preferential placement. #To support vote, simply make a post stating that you support a game. You may support as many games as you like, and you are encouraged to support more than one game at a time. Keep the actual voting portion of your post simple and direct. #You may not retract support votes. This is petty and creates unnecessary work. Exceptions will be made for radically revised setlists. #Conditional votes ("I'll vote if the nominator does XXX") will not be tracked. #Support votes by the nominators will not be counted. It’s assumed you support your own nominations. #At the conclusion of support voting, the games will be ranked first by number of support votes, and then by the order they were nominated. The top 64 games will be entered into the bracket, and seeded accordingly. #(Touhou rule) Highly represented series will be limited to three entries at most. If a fourth game from the same series would make the bracket, it will be omitted. Note that “series” is not the same thing as “intellectual property.” Decisions on this rule will be borne primarily out of gameplay. Thus, Final Fantasy Tactics would not be part of Final Fantasy, but Mega Man X would be part of Mega Man. Alternate Setlists: * If a setlist for a game is not up to your standards, it is your responsibility to talk to the nominator and try to work with them to get it changed. If for some reason this proves not possible, you may re-nominate the game with a second alternate setlist. * Alternate setlists will not be accepted on the day the game was originally nominated. Please talk to the nominator first. * Alternate setlists will count as your nomination for the day. * When an alternate setlist is proposed, all existing support votes will count for both lists. In this specific instance, retracting support votes will be allowed. * All future support votes for the game will count toward both unless they specify one list or the other. * The setlist with more support votes will preclude the other(s). In the event of a tie, the original (or oldest) list will prevail. Main Tournament Phase #Upon announcement of the bracket, several days will be given for users to make bracket predictions. Following this, the tournament will begin. #Two matches will run per day, for a period of 24 hours. Once the first round of the winner's bracket has finished, the second match each day will be from the loser's bracket, until the WB finishes and both matches come from the LB. #During each match, voters will be asked to choose between the songs representing the games in the matches. Song 1 on each setlist will be used in the first round, song 2 in the second, etc. Voters MUST vote on the songs and not on other criteria. #The game represented by the song with more votes advances. In the event of a tie, a rematch will take place using the “alternate” from each game’s setlist. #Games that lose will be placed in the loser’s bracket (LB). At the conclusion of the first round of the main tournament, one match from each day will be a pairing from the LB. Loser’s Bracket matches will (initially) use the first tier of songs that both games have not yet played in a match. See loser's bracket below. #In the LB, each game will receive a number of byes equal to the number of rounds they won in the WB. Additionally, the final four will receive an extra bye. The songs played in the rounds of the loser's bracket will be numbers 2-3-4-5-1-6-5-6. #The finals of the tournament will be a best of three format, using either all three odd-numbered songs or all three even-numbered songs. The alternate will replace any song pairing that represents a rematch. If the LB champion wins the first set, the other grouping will be used for the follow-up. The LB champion must win both since the WB champion must lose twice to be eliminated.